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Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Rolls-Royce has won an order from Turkish Airlines for Trent XWB engines to power 25 Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

The Trent XWB is the world's most efficient large civil aero engine flying today and is also the fastest selling widebody jet engine ever, with over 1,700 engines ordered by 45 customers worldwide.

The national flag carrier airline of Turkey currently operates an Airbus fleet of 167 aircraft with a further 92 A321neo on backlog. Turkish Airlines currently operates 27 Trent 700 powered A330 aircraft and one Trent 500 powered A340.

M. İlker Aycı, chairman of the board and the executive committee at Turkish Airlines, said: "This is a significant development in our plans for future growth and we look forward to adding these latest Rolls-Royce powered aircraft to our ever-expanding fleet. We have previous experience of operating Rolls-Royce engines and know the benefits of both the technology and their TotalCare service support."

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Chris Cholerton, president – civil aerospace at Rolls-Royce, added: "Turkish Airlines has enjoyed impressive growth over recent years and we are really proud to be playing our part in the next chapter of their story. The Trent XWB delivers excellent performance and this order underlines the confidence our customers have that our products are the right choice in terms of economics and services."

The Trent XWB first entered service in January 2015 and has delivered the best entry into service performance of any widebody engine.

The Trent engines include key components manufactured by Rolls-Royce in Rotherham.

The most advanced turbine blade casting facility in the world was officially opened on the Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) in Rotherham in 2014. The 150,000 sq ft facility employs around 150 people and has the capacity to manufacture more than 100,000 single crystal turbine blades a year.

The advanced turbine blade castings made in Rotherham rotate at 12,500 rpm, with their tips reaching 1,200mph – nearly twice the speed of sound. At take off each of the engine's high pressure turbine blades generates around 800 horsepower per blade - similar to a Formula One racing car.

There are two types of turbine blade manufactured at the Rotherham facility: high pressure (HP) and intermediate pressure (IP) single crystal blades. There are over 65 in every iconic Trent engine and 182 turbine blades in each Trent XWB engine.

The fuel-efficient engines, coupled with the latest aerodynamic design and carbon fibre fuselage and wings, has resulted in a 25% reduction in fuel burn and emissions, and significantly lower maintenance costs.